Fran Laufle, a parishioner of St. John Neumann in Eagan, lost her husband just two weeks ago, but she wasn’t going to miss the ordination Mass of her nephew, Father Brian Fischer, May 29, and six other men at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.
When Brian visited, her husband would ask, “When are you going to be a priest?” Her nephew was discerning just that, she said, and eventually decided to be a priest. “So, we are all so blessed.” As a nurse with room in her home, she recently cared for Father Fischer after he contracted COVID-19, developed viral pneumonia and was hospitalized for several days. “He’s special,” she said.
With Archbishop Bernard Hebda presiding, and four bishops and more than 100 priests from across the archdiocese concelebrating, five men were ordained for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and two for the religious order Pro Ecclesia Sancta, which was founded in Peru in 1992 and among its ministries serves St. Mark parish in St. Paul. The two priests ordained for the order, Father Joseph Barron, 28, and Father David Hottinger, 34, are Pro Ecclesia Sancta’s first U.S. vocations.
Ordained for the archdiocese were Father Fischer 47; Father James Bernard, 42; Father William Duffert, 32; Father Michael Reinhardt, 43; and Father Josh Salonek, 26. Father Fischer will have an unusual assignment: living the lifestyle of a hermit while providing spiritual direction to priests, particularly priests of the archdiocese.
Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens was joined by three bishops with strong ties to the archdiocese: Bishop Donald DeGrood of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Bishop Juan Miguel Betancourt, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford; and Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun, pastor of St. Maron Maronite Catholic Church in Minneapolis. Bishop DeGrood grew up in the archdiocese; Bishop Betancourt taught for several years at The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul.
Laufle said her family brought a good-size contingent to the ceremony, which would not have been possible at the 2020 ordination, when attendance was limited to about 250 because of COVID-19 restrictions. This year, with the May 28 lifting of indoor social distancing and crowd-size restrictions for places of worship by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, much of the Cathedral was filled with an estimated 1,600 family members, friends and other guests. The statewide requirement to wear face coverings was lifted in most settings as well, with those not vaccinated encouraged to wear masks.
One attendee, Julie Van Horn, said she was visiting a friend in the Twin Cities from her home in San Diego and simply wanted to come. “When I heard this was going on here, I wanted to take the opportunity to experience it,” she said.
In his homily, Archbishop Hebda wove the love of a marriage into a priest’s love of the Church, recalling the gifts his father gave his mother on their wedding anniversary — Valentine’s Day — to renew his expression of love. The archbishop wondered what gift St. Joseph would have given Mary each year, knowing it would have been something incredibly meaningful.
“You know that they gave Jesus such an incredible example of what it means to be married,” Archbishop Hebda said. “Joseph would have taught Jesus how it is that a man treats his bride. We see that in the way that Jesus indeed poured out his love for his bride, the Church.”
Archbishop Hebda suggested that Jesus shares his love for the Church by calling men to serve as his priests, to act in his stead. “The very person of Christ, every time the Mass is celebrated, every time absolution is offered,” he said. And the annual ordinations remind the faithful of Jesus’ great love for the Church, he said.
“Year after year, Jesus gives us hope,” Archbishop Hebda said. “He continues to show us his love through the ministry of the priests that he has so carefully formed.”
The archbishop shared several examples of how priests have served the faithful in the course of the past year, which he called the strangest year of his life. “I received so many letters from the family members of those who had COVID and were anointed by our COVID Corps priests. I’ll never forget the images of those priests who were hearing confession in icehouses or other places. I’ll never forget the image of priests who were celebrating outside in subzero temperatures or with snow on their forehead.”
The archbishop said he knows how much priests’ ministry has meant at times of funerals, weddings, baptisms. “They helped us to remember that, in spite of a pandemic, that Jesus loves his Church … I’m delighted to know that these seven men to be ordained today, like their brother priests who are represented here in such great numbers today, have great potential for making Christ’s presence in the life of this Church and beyond.”
Archbishop Hebda asked attendees to pray that the new priests will be good husbands for the Church, for Christ’s bride. In this year of St. Joseph, he encouraged parishioners, ask for his intercession that they be good fathers for their parishioners, and that they might love with Joseph’s tenderness, his fidelity and his care. “May the Lord bring to fulfillment the good work that he has begun in these men.”
After being ordained, Father Barron said he was grateful and overjoyed for the gift that the Lord entrusted to him “and just to see the love of the whole archdiocese here with us.”
Father Hottinger said his feelings following ordination were overwhelming. “I don’t even know when I’ll be able to put words to it,” he said. “Right now, I’m kind of moving through this time of grace, but it’s overwhelming to see the love of God expressed in his Church and how generous he’s been with me, and through me; how he’s given me this opportunity to bring that generosity, that love to others. It’s really humbling. And I hope to be able to respond with grace and fulfill this new obligation and responsibility.”
Ric Blanchard, a parishioner of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis who attended the Mass, said he served as Father Reinhardt’s RCIA sponsor years back. “I was very blessed to be his sponsor,” Blanchard said, calling Father Reinhardt extremely bright with “a wonderful sense” of listening to what others have to say and offering words of wisdom based on what he hears.
Father Reinhardt, a lawyer before responding to the call to priesthood, understands with sympathy where other people are coming from, “so I think he’ll be a wonderful priest,” Blanchard said.
Father Duffert said the ordination was “amazing, and beautiful to have so many people with us,” compared to the limited seating and singing at last year’s ordination. He recalled “just a lot of peace and joy today.”
“Talking to all my classmates, it’s been a long journey for all of us,” Father Duffert said. “Some of us have been in seminary for eight years, others six years. And so today was just a really beautiful day as we kind of jump into priestly ministry.”
Father Duffert’s brother Eric, 29, a parishioner of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Minnetonka, said he didn’t see his brother’s faith journey to the priesthood coming. “But watching him go through this discernment process, it’s all made sense,” he said. “I know he’s going to make an incredible priest and I can see it in him and I can see him being called to it and being ready to be that beacon of Jesus to people.”
Eric said his brother has been a big inspiration for him and has brought him even closer to his faith. “I’m a stronger Catholic today than I’ve ever been, and it’s probably because of him.”
Eleanora Salonek, second from right, reacts during Mass. At right is Joe Salonek. Eleanora is the niece of Father Josh Salonek, and Joe is his brother. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
Thomas Dzurik, 26, a parishioner of St. John Neumann in Eagan, attended the ordination with his wife. Father Josh Salonek presided at their wedding as a transitional deacon last summer. Dzurik and Father Salonek met at Extreme Faith Camp years ago and “kept a good friendship,” Dzurik said. “We wouldn’t miss this for anything.”
The customary offering of blessings by the new priests, suspended in 2020, followed this year’s ordination Mass. Six of the newly ordained priests had their own “chapel areas” as long lines of people queued up for blessings. Father Fischer, still recovering from his bout with COVID-19 and pneumonia, and often seated during the ordination Mass, deferred his priestly blessings to a later, unspecified, date.
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